The mission of the Kennett Consolidated School District is to provide a quality education that increases the achievement of every student in order for all to become successful and thoughtful contributors to society.

"Bancroft Elementary School is dedicated to creating a safe and rewarding educational experience for all children. Our goal is to focus on student success by fostering a positive, accepting and supportive learning environment where students are proud of the work that they do each day."

"Greenwood is comprised of hardworking students and dedicated teachers who measure success, not only in high-test scores, but also in lessons learned, problems solved, performances presented and projects completed."

"Mary D Lang Kindergarten Center has a balanced educational program that is focused on the whole child with experiences designed to expand the mental, physical, emotional, and social development of every student."

"Here at New Garden Elementary School we are committed to providing a nurturing and supportive learning environment for students to grow and feel successful while providing an excellent instructional program to meet the individual needs of all students."

"The entire Kennett Middle School staff believes that it is an honor and privilege to educate and care for the most prized possessions of our community, your children. We are a school that creates a well-balanced learning environment with high academic and behavioral standards."

"At Kennett High School, we hold our students to the highest of expectations both in and outside of the classroom. Together, we collaborate and communicate to ensure a positive learning environment where all students feel safe, welcomed, and inspired to improve each and every day...."

"KHS is very proud of our teams, coaches, and especially our student-athletes. They all do an outstanding job of representing KHS with hard work, dedication and sportsmanship both on and off the field."

"At Kennett High School, we hold our students to the highest of expectations both in and outside of the classroom. Together, we collaborate and communicate to ensure a positive learning environment where all students feel safe, welcomed, and inspired to improve each and every day...."

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The Kennett Consolidated School District is proud to announce that U.S. News & World Report has deemed Kennett High School one of America’s Best High Schools. Kennett High School ranked 32 of 216 schools in the Commonwealth and 1,307 of 19,753 in the country that were eligible for ranking.

According to the publication’s website, to produce the 2015 Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News & World Report teamed with North Carolina–based RTI International, a global, nonprofit social science research firm. The comprehensive rankings methodology is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show it is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.

A three-step process is used to determine the best high schools:• The first step determined whether each school’s students were performing better than statistically expected for students in their state. • For schools passing the first step, the second step assessed whether their disadvantaged students—black, Hispanic and low income—were outperforming disadvantaged students in the state.• Finally, schools that made it through the first two steps became eligible to be judged nationally on the final step—college-readiness performance—using Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data as the benchmarks for success, depending on which program was largest at the school.

Kennett Consolidated School District Superintendent Dr. Barry Tomasetti said, “The credit for this honor first goes to our hardworking students who challenge themselves by selecting and excelling at our most rigorous courses. Additionally, I would like to congratulate the parents of our students because their emphasis on the importance of taking advantage of high-quality educational opportunities has resulted in many of our students excelling as students in Kennett schools and beyond. Finally, I have a deep appreciation for our faculty, staff, and administration. These dedicated educators expect the best from our students and dedicate their lives to providing an outstanding learning environment for all our students.

For more information on the U.S. News & World Report ranking process and details on Kennett High School’s ranking click here.

Effective July 1, 2015, the District’s real estate taxes will be billed and collected by Keystone Collections Group.

What will change?

The tax bill form.

Payments will be made to Keystone Collections Group instead of Kennett Consolidated School District and mailed to Keystone Collections Group, P. O. Box 529, Irwin, PA 15642

Taxpayers will be able to pay in person at Keystone’s Downingtown Office located at 144 Wallace Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335. Office hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. and the telephone number is 610-269-4402. Tax payments will no longer be accepted at Fulton Bank in Kennett Square.

Taxpayers will be able to pay with debit and credit cards or directly from bank accounts via ACH using Keystone Collections Group website. Payments will no longer be processed through the KCSD tax office or website.

Taxpayer inquiries will be handled by Keystone Collections Group, 888-519-3903.

Members of the Blue and White Chapter must demonstrate and maintain high standards of the four hallmarks of the National Honor Society: scholarship, leadership, character and service. Throughout the year, members of the National Honor Society members participate in service activities including tutoring and fund raising. This year they have organized two blood drives for the American Red Cross, volunteered in many community events like the Red Clay Cleanup and the Mushroom Festival, and raised money to combat childhood leukemia and to support the Kennett Food Cupboard. The group has also sponsored social activities at the high school, including this month’s Glow Dance.

Members of the Blue and White Chapter became eligible by posting a 3.75 grade point average (GPA) by the second semester of their junior year. Additional qualities of character, leadership and service were assessed by the faculty of Kennett High School and reviewed by members of the National Honor Society Faculty Council, chosen by the Principal from among the faculty and serving for a period of years. This year’s Faculty Council included Carol Aiken, Colleen Allen, Rachel Ceci, Hannah Ciceu, Jodi Davidson, William Fritsch, Kimberly Guarneri, Theresa Indiveri, Lisa Kochmansky, Stephanie Lluna-Garces, Jeffrey Moreau, Joseph O’Sullivan, Michael Replogle, Robert Wagner, and Michael Waite.

Kennett High School’s FBLA Network Design Team and an individual competitor in Agribusiness advanced out of state competition to the Future Business Leaders of America National Conference and Competition to be held in Chicago, June 27-July 3. According to the FBLA Web site, “This conference is considered the pinnacle of the FBLA experience.”

The Network Design Team of Sean Huezo, Saarang Karandikar, and Michael Yue (all juniors) placed first in the state level competition, April 12-15 in Hershey. At the national level the team will have to complete an objective online test of competencies including network installation, problem solving and trouble shooting, network administration, configuration of Internet resources, backup and recovery, and configuration of network resources. The 15 teams with the highest objective test scores will move on to the final round in which the team is given a case study and 20 minutes to prepare a response and solution to the situation presented.

The team has a great deal of experience working together. All three are members of the Robotics Team and the Marching Band. Karandikar and Yue are also tennis teammates and doubles partners.

Freshman Benjamin Jordan qualified to the national competition by placing fourth at the state competition in a brand new event, Agribusiness. This event recognizes FBLA members who demonstrate an understanding of, and skill in, basic agribusiness concepts and procedures. The objective portion of the competition will focus on economics, finance and accounting, environmental management, marketing, terminology and trends.

Jordan remarked, “I was very surprised by my success at the state level. The questions covered everything: accounting, terms like ‘intramuscular injection’, and future market planning for anything from fiber based clothing to food.”

Jordan also participates in Mock Trial and Model UN at the high school. He is interested in pursuing a career in actuarial science.

Also finishing in the top ten at the State Leadership Conference, but not qualifying to nationals, were: the team of Becca Shoemaker, Amanda Haid, and Lauren Hauptschein (Business Ethics); the team of Nichol Brown, Maggie O’Sullivan, Alex Mark, and Phoebe Hertler (Parliamentary Procedures); the team of Richard Doty, Arshia Faghri, and Zach Shen (Global Business); Jon Sweet (Business Procedures).

The Kennett High School Chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America is advised by Business Department Teacher Bill Fritsch who accompanied the students to the conference in Hershey. Fellow business teacher Chanel August also served as chaperone more than thirty KHS FBLA members who qualified to state competition from the regional level. In addition to those named above, regional qualifiers included Leo Battalora, Cody Brown, P.J. O’Sullivan, Julie Bates, Mairead O’Sullivan, Kavya Shetty, Jackie Tucker, Drew Church, Zach Hrenko, Ryan Salameda, Charles Shattuck, Aliyah Asel, Maggie O’Sullivan, Pearl Battalora, Erin Dooley, Hannah Huzar, Ananya Kapur, and April Lin.

The students moving on to the national competition will be accompanied by Amanda O’Connor, a member of the Social Studies Department.

After the classrooms have gone dark and the hallways are quiet, Greenwood Elementary School’s building supervisor, Mr. Dave Jones, and his team go to work preparing the school for the next day. Mr. Jones has been with the Kennett Consolidated School District since December 1999. After a brief time working in central maintenance, he was moved to Greenwood Elementary School.

“Everyone at Greenwood is fantastic,” he commented. “The teachers and administrators are great to work with, and I truly enjoy the kids.”

As the building supervisor, Mr. Jones oversees a night team of three people. In the summer, his team includes an additional college student or two. During the school year, his responsibilities include ensuring that the building operates smoothly and that everyone is comfortable and safe. In addition to making sure the building is clean, he makes or oversees repairs.

During the summer, Mr. Jones and his team clean every square inch of the building, including walls, windows, and blinds. All of the floors are stripped and waxed. “Our summer cleaning is more thorough than what can be done during the school year,” he explains. “The goal is for the building to be shiny and new for the first day of school.”

Prior to joining the Kennett Consolidated School District, Mr. Jones worked for 23 years at Service Star where he did everything except drive a truck. He holds his associate’s degree in business from Immaculata University. He attended Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology with his brother-in-law where he earned his heating, ventilating, and air conditioning, or HVAC, certification; his brother-in-law works with the Unionville Area School District.

Mr. Jones grew up in Cochranville. He and his wife, Sue, have two teenage daughters and a menagerie of animals. “We have goats, a horse, chickens, ducks, and two dogs,” he said. “My wife calls our place Green Acres!”

He and his family are very active with their church, Hephzibah Baptist Church in Coatesville. He is looking forward to chaperoning their Miracle Mountain Trip in August. Mr. Jones also enjoys fishing. His largest catch was a 42-inch barracuda that he caught in the Bahamas.

Kennett High School artists displayed their works for their fellow students, teachers, staff and members of the community on Friday, May 1, at the high school.

The show included works from all classes within the Fine Arts Department from Basic Art to Advanced Art and Ceramics to Graphic Art. Teachers Mr. Tom Hironimus, Ms. Kathy Caputo Nelms, and Ms. Jodi Davidson helped their students produce and display their art work.

A group of Kennett High School students have stepped up to the challenge, the 10 Day Film Challenge that is, and two have emerged as high scoring award winners. The high school students in Mr. Frank Vanderslice’s video production class took part in an intense project in which teams of students make a movie — writing, shooting, editing and scoring it, in just 10 school days and only on the school campus.

Over one hundred films were submitted to the contest, and on April 29 the winners were announced during a screening at the United Artists Cinema in Philadelphia. Kennett seniors Lucas Ransick and Hannah Geller received the award for Best Use of Special Effects and their film “Fumigation” placed eighth overall. The film is an action adventure film starring senior classmate P.J. O’Sullivan as the hero with Hannah Geller playing a villain. Lucas Ransick shot and edited the film.

The 10 Day Film Challenge began on March 16 with submissions due on March 27. On the first day, the challenge was given to the students with information about the character, prop, line of dialogue, cinematic technique, and genre that must be included in their movie. Genres were drawn from a hat. This year’s genres were romance, thriller, sci-fi, superhero, fantasy, mystery, mockumentary, slice of life, sports/games, or monster movie.

Mr. Vanderslice said that this year the students were challenged by having to incorporate into their movie: a character named Eric or Erica Ashton who has just won an award, an apple as a prop, and the line of dialogue: “Does it really make a difference?” Then 10 school days later, a three- to four-minute movie was completed along with a movie poster. The best films were shown at a local theater as part of an awards ceremony and may be posted online. The films were judged on everything from acting to production.